Portraits – Feminism at 70-something

We call her the “five-minute lady.” She usually comes to the drive-thru, and no matter what she orders, or what time of day it is, or how prepared we are to help her move along…she always takes about five minutes at the window. She’s always got to have the right amount of napkins (four), or perhaps she didn’t order the right drink, or she wants to add some dessert. Of course she has to ask how much each dessert costs in order to make her decision.   

It is really rather remarkable, and I have come to believe that she is mentally obsessed with the feeling of power she gets by holding everyone in the drive-thru, customers and employees, hostage to her every whim. I know it may sound mean to speak of a 70-something year old woman this way, but she definitely seems psychopathic. (I’ve had an employee from a different restaurant in the area tell me this woman does the same thing at their store.)

But as fascinating as that aspect of her personality is, there is another facet of her life that deserves more attention and will perhaps be more educational to us. It is the relationship she has with her husband.

I’ve seen them come inside a few times, though that is rare. They sit in a booth and talk with grandkids or whomever they have brought along. But they don’t really talk to each other. She speaks to him…and he nods.

He doesn’t really look at other people when she’s around. He is a friendly fellow, and when he is by himself he can be almost outgoing. But when his wife is with him he withdraws into a shell, and doesn’t really talk to people. He is the picture of a badgered, beaten-down, heckled, bullied, dominated man who has suffered for years under the rule of his wife.

One of my co-workers told me of a time that the “five-minute lady” went to the bathroom, and while she was away her husband spoke to a young woman in the room. Nothing vulgar or inappropriate, just minimal small talk. She came out and saw him speaking to her. When they got in the car my co-worker said she saw the woman yelling at her husband, extremely irate. They just sat in the car for a few minutes, him staring at the ground while she makes him pay the usual price. Since everything was fine before she saw him talking to the girl, we can only assume she was angry because he was speaking to another woman. Just speaking. Apparently she has jealousy issues also.

Perhaps she needs to feel power over others. Maybe she is power hungry, and the only areas she can have that power is at home and at restaurants where she eats. Who really knows? But it seems to be a picture of the end result of rampant feminism in our society. The relationship between the “five-minute lady” and her husband is a photo of what happens when a wife, under the direction of feminist philosophy, tries to dominate her husband and lead the family.

What you end up with is a domineering, controlling woman who is bitter and power hungry, and a man who has sold his manliness for the sake of peace, possessing merely a shadow of masculinity, which is visible only when the “lady of the house” is not around.

This to me sounds like years of misery. It is a scary thing to live under 50+ years of dominate feminism. No wonder young men are avoiding marriage like the plague.